I enjoy the odd TED Talks now and then to keep me up-to-date in innovations and breakthrough thinking in areas outside of my usual scope of interest. It was here that I discovered, some months ago, two truly eye-opening talks by Hans Rosling, which showed firstly, that graphs and statistics are supposed to help us understand information and change (and moreover that statistics are on the user's side and not merely there to discourage you), and secondly, that statistics are indeed absolutely inseparable in realizing the change and direction that the world has taken so far, and thirdly that with just the information, it is easy to manouver statistics to make what we want to say easier to understand. On a personal level, it reminded me not to settle for any old person's interpretation of information but to manipulate for my own purposes and my own studies. And so I give you the two talks by Hans Rosling.
And very good news: the programme Gapminder (by Rosling and his son & daughter-in-law) developed that made statistics approachable and interesting is available on iGoogle and up for use: click Motion Chart!